The Rise of the Light
by luceserlin
Summary: "You brought yourself into a very dangerous place, Rylla", Kylo Ren whispered. "How funny that it's you that makes it so"
1. Chapter 1

**_Thank you so very much for the kind comments, follows and favourites. I've been day dreaming up ideas for this story, and I'm very excited as to where this is going. I might take a day between updates, as I really do like to research for my stories to be as accurate as possible. I hope you enjoy this new chapter!_**

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Rylla had been sitting in a dimly-lit control room for almost a day and a half. She'd eaten a few times, when C3PO or General Organa had brought meals, but she hadn't been able to taste them: Poe Dameron, an excellent man and their best pilot, had told her half their team was missing. Even with their technology, they'd been unable to find them.

She'd declared them dead.

It seemed nearly impossible that in life she'd gone to captain the Resistance. Though she'd been taught to fly by the best in Corellia, she'd always assumed she'd go back to Naboo, go on to teach small children how to pilot, and have a son or two. She hadn't known when it'd happen (she assumed it'd take time), but she'd been willing to wait. Now, waiting seemed to be something futile: they couldn't wait until the pilots were found, because they needed others to complete the previous mission. They couldn't wait for their droids to be returned, because they needed others to deliver documents. They couldn't wait for anything, during times like these.

Rylla had lied to General Organa: she was not happy. She'd prefer to pilot, but the former Princess had refused. She suspected she didn't want to lose anyone else close to her, but Rylla was not a Skywalker. She was to remain at the base, alone at times with only foreign-speaking droids as company.

"Captain"

She turned to find Commander Dameron, standing directly in the doorway to her control room.

"Hello" she smiled. She pressed a small button and told the red droid beside her to monitor the map. He beeped four times, and hummed.

"Hello"

Poe's smile was one of a man who hadn't seen much of life, but he had. She couldn't understand him, but she urged him in nonetheless. He took a chair, and sat with its backrest to his chest.

"We located Temmin Wexley and Ello Asty"  
" _What?!"_  
"I know" Poe laughed. "Here in D'Qar"  
"But how did they not show up on the–"  
"Broken uniforms" Poe interrupted. "Showed up right in our doorstep"  
"Oh, Sweet Soalie" Rylla sighed. She went to her small square button again, to open up their biographies and change their status.

"Shouldn't you wait to see them yourself?" he asked her.  
Rylla turned to him, her finger floating above the button.  
"You've seen them?"  
"Yes"  
She pressed it.

"I'm really sorry about BB-8. We'll find him, too"  
"I'm not worried. He's important now"  
"Of course" she smiled, swirling her chair back to him. "How's the arm?"  
Poe nodded once, and raised his folded elbow slightly.  
"No red arm for you, sadly"

Poe laughed, but said:  
"I must have been too busy at my arrival, I didn't see you there, Captain"  
"Yes, I– assumed you'd be overwhelmed"  
"Of course"  
"Are you alright?"  
"I am" Poe said. He was giving her the softest of smiles, though it was different from the ones _she_ was used to giving General Organa. "Would you like my report now, Captain?"

Rylla did not. She'd rather have one of the droids note it down, write is as they often did with General Organa's biography, and have it be over with. She hadn't shown up at his arrival in the control room for this precise reason, and she was sure Leia had wished she had not been, either. But, as were her superior's wishes, she'd been named Captain and, furthermore, she'd assured the General that she wanted the position. It suddenly dawned on her that she'd known Rylla would have to carefully interview Poe, and wondered if this was the reason for her insistence.

"Yes" she told him firmly. Turning to her tiny red droid, she said: "Please, bring PZ-4CO"

"My X Wing was disabled by Stormtroopers as I left Jakku after speaking with Lor San Tekka" Poe began. He'd finally turned his chair into the right position, and sat with his back straight, his eyes directly at hers. "He provided me with the map to Luke Skywalker, and I placed it inside BB-8"

"Correct"

"Kylo Ren emerged, exchanged words with San Tekka, and slaughtered him" he continued. "Ragged saber, crossguard blades"

Rylla merely nodded. Poe added:  
"I shot at him with my blaster, but the Force stopped the bolt in mid air"  
"What?" Rylla leaned forward. "He stopped a bolt in mid air?"

Poe's head nodded once. He made a point to note his strength with the Force:  
"I was then paralized, and taken captive" he told her. "The surrounding villagers were slaughtered. I assume BB-8 escaped at some point during this. Once aboard–"  
"What type of ship did they board?" Rylla interrupted. They'd been attempting to locate their movements but it appeared that, at some point, they had been able to protect their ship's location.  
"Star Destroyer" Poe informed. "Resurgent class"  
" _Skrag"_ muttered.

Poe didn't stop.

"Rylla, we need more fighters. More ships, we need more pilots"  
"We're doing everything in our power–"  
"80,000 at hand, at least" he interrupted.  
"We have the support of–" Rylla tried to tell him  
"Kylo Ren is _very_ strong with the Force. I was taken captive, and tortured by him. It embarrasses me to say that it was easy for him to purge the information on the map out of me".  
"You don't give yourself the credit you deserve"

Her tone was firm, and it was Poe who chose not to speak at this point.

"You're an outstanding fighter. Not one of us could have done better at the hands of Kylo Ren. You escaped, and seeing you here fills me with pride, and enormous joy. I'm grateful for your strength, Commander. It does my heart good".

"And it does mine good to hear those words, Captain"

Poe remained still in his chair. Even with an injured arm, and an expression as determined as his ability to fly, he looked almost regal speaking to her.

"What do we need?" Rylla asked him.  
" _I_ need some Old Trusty". he told her. Looking at her half eaten food, he added: "And you do, too"


	2. Chapter 2

The Commander sat in front of her in the only tavern in D'Qar, built hastily when the resistance established in the planet. Surrounded by equally hastily built houses, the only patrons to ever visit it– in fact, the only ones who seemed to live in D'Qar at all– were other Resistance fighters. The bar was even served exclusively by a stern Resistance medic, Holl Nebu, who made sure no one got carried away. That night, he'd made an exception for Poe.

Poe Dameron was a kind, strong man of around 32, and admired by everyone. Rylla admired him greatly, and often wondered if _he_ should not be the Captain. Though she was sure of her own abilities, she knew she'd been put there only because of General Organa's favour. She'd known her and her family for what seemed to be her entire life, and they'd always been close. Her mother, a hydronautics engineer from Alderaan, had known her even when she was a Princess.

Poe had had more than five drinks past the one he should have stopped at.

"And–and I grabbed my com– _oh, blast!–_ comlink, and told him–" he stopped to pick up the napkin he'd dropped, and hissed a few breathy, intoxicated chuckles, "– I, I said: _Wait_ , what was I telling you?"

Rylla and the two other pilots in their table burst into laughter. She had already had her hand at her stomach when he'd started to tell jokes, but at his attempt of storytelling, he was awful.

"Ry– _hick!–_ lla, what–what was I saying?" Poe stumbled. He tried to catch the last drop stuck to the bottom of his little shot glass, but Rylla gently took it and placed it beside her cup of tea.  
" _I_ was saying that it might be time to get you to the base"

" _No!"_ he hushed. Poe tried to move a clumsy finger to her lips, but accidentally poked inside her nostril instead. Rylla quickly huffed and snatched her head away, but her shoulders were still shaking, and she couldn't stop laughing, even if she'd just had sweetened tea.

"Sorry" Poe simply said. He scratched the bridge of his own nose.  
"It's alright", she smiled. "But let's get you home, Commander"  
"Yeah, alright"

Rylla stood to pay, slid Poe her cup of tea, and let one of the other pilots hand him a clean napkin.

In the base, merely a short walk from the family's homes and the tavern, Camda Kieston placed his pilot badge to the portkey, and they all went inside. Poe stood his ground, walked himself inside, but crashed slightly into a shelf full of spare gloves. He quickly apologised, but his reflexes allowed him only to let more gloves drop in his attempt at catching the rest. Rylla placed her hand on his softly, and navigated him towards the barracks.

"They'd never let us do something like this. Let alone with the Captain", she heard one of the men behind them whisper.  
"Poe is our best flyer" Rylla said, turning her head back to look at the other soldiers. "Maybe this can be motivation to start training harder, pilot"

"Or–or _maybe_ , you'd like to be tortured– just a little _bit_ " Poe added, his index and thumb finger pinching together, as though showing him an amount. He flicked his finger.  
"You're dismissed for tonight, gentlemen" Rylla told them. "Present yourselves in the field at 06:00"  
"Yes, Captain", they chorused. Rylla noted a slight limp in the blonde one's left leg, and made a mental note to inquire the following day.

"Off to bed, Poe" she said, finally turning to her friend.  
"It's so early" he argued.  
"Off to bed. Left, straight ahead, then right."  
"I know where my room is"  
"Just making sure" she grinned.

She decided to walk with him, in case he decided to drop, asleep, to the floor as another pilot had done only a few weeks before.

"What a fantastic day, wasn't it? Where do you think BB-8 is?" he asked, his words quick.  
"Safe, I hope"  
"With a friend?"  
"Of course"  
"Jakku is a junkyard"  
"And hopefully someone knows the value of a good droid" she told him. "We'll find him very soon, Poe. You know how important this map is."

He stopped suddenly, his hand at his stomach, but he turned to her, and waited for the weird droid that cleaned the floors to roll by.

"Do you really think we'll find Luke Skywalker?" he whispered. His hand, she noticed, was still gently gripping her wrist for balance.  
"Of course", she murmured back. She looked to the corner of the hall to make sure General Organa wasn't near.  
"Have you met him?"  
"Command–"  
"They're gone. We're friends"  
"Poe, of course I've met him" she whispered. "We've talked about Luke before"

It was true. When he'd joined the Resistance, they'd been two of only five pilots left alive. Back then, Rylla was still flying a T-70 X-Wing fighter, and she and Poe often flew together. They'd discussed the Skywalkers, and how she'd come to know them. Though Poe knew nothing of Ben Solo, it was only he who knew how close to Han and General Organa Rylla really was.

"Will he get rid of that scum?"

Rylla blinked at his drunken bluntness. Though she knew they all felt strongly about him, it bothered her greatly when expressions of it caught her off-guard. She could only offer him a weak reassurance that Luke Skywalker, indeed, would, and a slight nudge to his back so they'd keep walking to his chambers. Once he'd gone inside, she walked back towards the Control Room, found Princess Leia sitting in her favourite chair facing the map of the First Order's base, and pulled up another chair beside her, much like they did every night.

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 _Again, thank you so very much for reading, following and favouriting '_ The Rise of the Light". _If you'd like to leave any comments, or suggest any changes, additions or corrections, I would absolutely love it and very very thankful._


	3. Chapter 3

**PLEASE READ THIS NOTE: Hello! If you've been following this story, you'll notice that parts of this chapter were the story's original first chapter. I've decided to relocate it to what I think is a more appropriate place in the story, and added important bits to expand it, making the whole story much more clear. Again, there are obviously a lot of spoilers in this fic. If you haven't watched _The Force Awakens,_ I strongly suggest you don't read this one just yet.**

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"There is nothing we could have done, General", Rylla said quietly. She swiped the map in front of them and pressed a gold button to find the General Hux's location without granting Leia even a small look. "It is time we accept that Kylo Ren forged his own path. We were all obstacles in it."

Leia nodded, and pressed her finger to the small square Rylla was pointing to. Instantly, their General's location appeared, translucent, in thin air. Besides his tiny dot, Kylo Ren's. Rylla waved her hand and called for a man to observe his vitals and any movement. She stood up, gave General Organa a tiny, frozen smile, and walked towards another hologram in the corner.

It seemed impossible that she was sitting in a control room, when only years before she'd planned her life entirely, and imagined herself surrounded by people so very different from those she was surrounded by then. The thought of sitting in a room, alone with Princess Leia, and with none of their family members to be contacted, seemed so surreal that sometimes she wondered if she really was there, pressing buttons, making strategies and giving orders to her own group of pilots. Again, she wondered if Poe Dameron was a better choice for the Resistance's air captain, and in her haid counted the months the medic had given her for her injures to heal.

As she was about to sit down, a voice interrupted her thoughts:

"I'm terribly sorry to hear of your accident, Captain. If I may be of any help, I'd most certainly be happy to assist you"  
The droid, having appeared quite suddenly and having startled her, simply moved his red arm and, before he could mention it, Rylla said:  
"Thank you, 3PO"  
"Oh, you're perfectly welcome, Captain"

He moved aside, but only merely. Rylla gave him another one of her miniature smiles, and woke up a map of D'Qar.

"Rylla–"  
"General Organa, if I may–", the droid began enthusiastically.  
"Not right now, C3PO", Leia advised.  
"However, if I–"  
"Later, 3PO, thank you"

Turning to find General Organa looking at her, Rylla added:  
"C3PO, please ask Poe Dameron if he needs any medical assistance, he's in his room"  
"Why, certainly, Captain. I shall do so at this _precise_ moment!"

As he left, Princess Leia removed her hand, which had laid softly on a silver desk, from on top of a few documents, and moved towards Captain Corliss. She held her thumb with her fingers and she announced:

"Rylla, I think if we maybe moved you into another task, it would be better for your heart"  
"General Organa, I really don't have anything against my current position. I'm honoured and happy to serve the Resistance as necessary"  
"But look at how you're talking. So serious and curt", Leia told her. Her voice was quiet, but her expression held sympathy. "Let me move you to another area while you heal your wound and–"

"I really don't want to go", Rylla finally said. "I'm happy. I know my pilots, I want to be here and–"  
"But programming droids to understand ships will help us tremendously–"  
"I'm happy here" she repeated. She wished her voice held more firmness, but she couldn't speak to her in any tone other than one full of respect. "Please, don't put me somewhere else. If you were anyone else, you'd be happy with my performance".

"You are outstanding in what you do" Leia said. "Even, I'm afraid, at maintaining a static face"  
"Yes" Rylla said. "I am heartbroken, as you are. I think the faster we move on, the better"

It was Leia who allowed herself only a small, frozen smile.  
"A mother cannot move on from the loss of her son" she told her. She took her hand and gently stroked the back of it with her thumb. Rylla glanced at the movement quickly before looking back into the General's eyes. "There is still Light in Ben. We know it. But there is no reason you should not find it elsewhere"

Rylla wished she could take her hand back, but refused to be rude. Instead, she placed her other hand on top of General Organa's.

"I have other things to find at the moment, General" she said. "Poe Dameron is back and hopefully sleeping, but Cerlo Goet has not contacted us in days. We found two of the lost ones with broken uniforms, but Poe and I aren't sure this one is also here in D'Qar".

"Dental work?"  
"We don't use that kind of tracking device anymore" she told her, turning to her briefly before sitting down and gliding her fingers across a tiny screen in front of her. As she did so, the map twirled and turned, locating hundreds of red dots scattered around both the base, and at the homes they'd built for their fighters. In the tavern they'd just been to, a few red dots remained, and Rylla made a note to have the stray pilot that was still in it woken up a couple minutes earlier than planned.

She briefly, but very distinctively, remembered the younger Han Solo of her childhood, angry and out in the street, mumbling about being woken up in the dead of the night as he was followed by C3PO. Though grateful for the current familiarity of Leia and the golden droid, she hadn't seen the man in nearly the same time she hadn't seen his son. She found she didn't miss him quite as much as he missed his friend, Chewbacca the Wookie. She told the story out loud to General Organa, who chuckled genuinely for the first time since the map to Luke Skywalker had last been located.

" _Rooarrgh ur roo!"_ , Leia suddenly broke into.

After a split second, Rylla roared, launching her entire body into a crunch, and laughing manically as Leia tried to gurgle with her throat in Chewie's fashion.

 _"Wyaaaaaa!"_ Rylla tried, and both women erupted into heavy breaths again, doubling over, Leia on her feet and Rylla on her swirly chair, making crazy hand motions in an attempt to grab the other woman's arm.

"Oh–" Leia tried, breathing, chuckling once or twice, and wiping her eyes. "Oh, feech, this is too much"

Rylla emited a sound very much like a real wookie, and slapped her hand uncontrollably to her thigh, until a sudden sound, much louder than either of their attempts at Shyriiwook, stopped their silliness. The alarm connected to the First Order's map had suddenly come alive.


End file.
